THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING

Kellogg promotes its family of cereals, even the sugary ones, as components of a healthy diet.

By Courtney Kane

Published: September 3, 1997

THE Kellogg Company, wounded in the cereal wars, is returning fire by dusting off its own time-honored strategy of promoting health claims. An extensive print campaign boasts that all Kellogg cereal brands -- even Froot Loops -- are nutritious staples of a healthy life style, not simply convenient breakfast foods.

''Our company was founded on better-for-you nutritional food,'' said Jon Wilson, who has the unusual title of executive vice president for consumer and customer engagement at Kellogg in Battle Creek, Mich. His reference was to the roots of the company, the leader in the nation's $8 billion ready-to-eat cereal market, which can be traced to W. K. Kellogg and his crusade early this century for healthful living.

The advertisements, carrying the theme ''Cereal. Eat it for life,'' will begin appearing this month in national magazines like Good Housekeeping, Health, Parenting and Redbook. They are successors to recent campaigns that emphasized price and value in response to the competitive challenges posed by cheaper cereal brands.

Many consumers experienced sticker shock after prices of many cereal brands climbed to more than $5 a box last year, leading Kellogg and its principal rivals, General Mills and the Post Cereal Company unit of the Philip Morris Companies, to cut prices. Despite that, Kellogg continued to lose market share, though its most recent quarterly results showed some improvement.

At the same time, the print campaign, by the Leo Burnett USA unit of the Leo Burnett Company in Chicago, comes as Kellogg and other cereal makers try to lure back consumers who defected to breakfast bars, bagels and other alternatives.

''We are cognizant that we have more competition for breakfast than we ever had before,'' Mr. Wilson said.

In fact, he added, ''we're in healthy competition with ourselves,'' referring to Kellogg's recent acquisition of the Lender's bagel brand from the Kraft Foods unit of Philip Morris. The cereal campaign coincides with the introduction of a $20 million television campaign for Lender's that was created by another Kellogg agency, the J. Walter Thompson New York unit of WPP Group.

Neither Kellogg nor Burnett would discuss spending for the cereal campaign, but the company was said to be devoting the largest amount to a nutritional message since the mid-1980's, when it promoted the benefits of the bran in All-Bran. Spending on that campaign totaled $11.2 million in 1985 and $14.9 million in 1986.

The new campaign cites the results of research on ailments from cancer to osteoporosis to heart disease and presents cereal as beneficial in fighting them all. The company drew data from many sources to back up its claims, Mr. Wilson said; the ads do not cite sources for the various claims. Some claims, such as statements that they help fight cancer and heart disease, have been approved by Federal regulators.

The effort is intended to ''weave a tapestry of the goodness of cereal and the goodness of life,'' said Jon Cashen, vice president and creative director at Burnett.

The message Kellogg hopes to convey, he added, is that ''cereal is as essential for your well-being and quality of life as multivitamins, and in fact it should be one of those no-brainer things.''

Featured in the print ads are cereal brands like Frosted Flakes, Raisin Bran and Rice Krispies, mixing and matching them with specific benefit statements. For instance, one ad, centered on a photograph of a mother playing with her child, asserts that ''a bowl of cereal may help reduce the risks of osteoporosis'' by providing recommended daily amounts of calcium. Five cereals are featured in that ad, including Corn Flakes, Crispix and Special K.

A second ad, showing a man who appears to be in his late 60's toting a surfboard, poses the question ''Can cereal reduce the risk of heart disease?'' The Kellogg answer: Maybe so, if one eats low-fat foods like cereal, along with cutting down on saturated fat and cholesterol. There are four Kellogg brands in that ad, including a new one, Honey Crunch Corn Flakes, and Raisin Bran.

A third advertisement, showing an older couple dancing a tango, carries the headline ''Eating a low-fat diet rich in fiber foods like wheat bran cereals may reduce the risks of some cancers.'' Four brands are promoted in the ad, like All-Bran and Frosted Mini-Wheats.

This kind of multiple-brand campaign is rare for Kellogg, which usually pitches products one by one.

''This is a good format,'' Mr. Wilson said, ''because we can cover quite a spectrum'' of products.

Two ads may raise eyebrows because they include sugary cereals that do not typically come to mind as nutritious.

One asserts that ''kids who eat breakfast perform better in school'' and that serving them their favorite cereals is a good way to get them to eat breakfast. That ad includes Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes and Corn Pops in addition to Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies.

The other ad declares that ''kids who eat cereal get the iron and zinc they need to grow.'' That ad features Apple Jacks, Corn Pops and Froot Loops along with Raisin Bran and Frosted Mini-Wheats.

''It comes as a welcome surprise that brands like Corn Pops and Fruit Loops can actually be good for your health,'' Mr. Cashen said.

''We tried to give the ads a very positive, uplifting feeling,'' he added, ''as opposed to saying if you don't eat cereal you're going to die. Trying to threaten people into changing the way they behave doesn't work.''

Bonnie Liebman, nutrition director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy organization in Washington, said, ''It is true that kids will get iron and zinc from these cereals.''

She added, though, that ''It's a mistake to imply that heavily sugared foods are healthy, no matter how many vitamins and minerals have been added to them.''

Another new aspect of the campaign is that some product packages feature a redesigned Kellogg logo, which adds a sunrise above the brand name.

Kellogg has not decided how long the campaign will run, Mr. Wilson said, adding: ''If it works as we expect it to, it will be for a long time. Hey, we've run Tony the Tiger since 1953.''

Photo: The Kellogg Company has introduced an extensive new print campaign promoting the health and nutritional benefits of its cereals. The campaign follows recent efforts touting the cereals' price and value. (Leo Burnett U.S.A.)